Healthy Mind, Happy Heart Wellington, New Zealand

mental health awareness week NZ

Kia ora!
Hope you had a good week and are keeping warm, it was a cold night!!!
I started a crochet for calmness lunch club at my son’s college last week, how cool is that??
I will also be a the health conferences at my local college again for a mindfulness workshop.

One of the things I always tell young people, is this.
What you think, all the thoughts that pop up in your mind, is just that, only thoughts. Words and sentences.
You do not have to take these so serious, they are not facts. It’s just what your brain is made to do, firing neurons and making words and sentences continuously going through your mind. However they can make you feel bad, so it’s good to be mindful of it! Check your mind, as if you are scrolling through a Twitter feed! Most tweets you can just discard off!

So for this week, practice mindfulness of the thoughts popping up, and maybe do a little reality check if you are not feeling the way you want to feel.
You can ask yourself if it is really true what you are thinking, is it a fact, is it proven?
You can ask yourself if others would be thinking the same in that situation, or if you would tell others the same as you are telling yourself?
Also, if the thoughts make you feel bad, they are not ok, and there are different ways to think about it, that will make you feel less bad.
And if your thoughts get you into conflict with yourself or others, that is also an indication that your thoughts are not realistic and you can let go of them.
You can also discard all the thoughts that have “should” or “should not” in them!

Remember, what you give attention to grows, so if you have anxious or unhappy feelings and thoughts, it is ok to distract yourself so you don’t make it worse for yourself.
It can help to take some mindful breaths and than change your attention to an activity that you normally would like to do.

Register for next term by emailing me on monique@easynowmindfulness.com!!

We are also colouring again on Sunday, 10-12, at the Tawa Community Centre.

Good morning!!

Last week in the Creative Mindfulness Class ( you are welcome to our last meeting tomorrow in Tawa by the way) we did a mindfulness of thinking practice.

This is something you can easily try at home too.

The goal is to learn to notice the thoughts popping up in your mind (which is normal and happens all the time).

So no analysing, no judging, no liking, no disliking, just noticing every thought as it pops up in your mind, and disappears again.

When you become more aware of what is going on in your mind, you will get more control over your mind, and will be more able to decide what thoughts are helpful for you, and what thoughts are unhelpful. It will be easier to let those unhelpful thoughts pass by, by just noticing them and not giving them any more attention.

So this week, take a moment to find a nice quiet spot to sit, close your eyes, focus on your breathing for 10 breaths and than bring all your attention to your thinking. A couple of minutes to start with will be great!

Learn to crochet, 4 weeks, starts 1 November on the Wednesday evening.

My Wednesday evening “learn to crochet for calmness” class finished last Wednesday and I’m super proud of my students!! I’m also super grateful for the awesome feedback they gave me on the course 💜 Thank you!!!

We had a great morning full of colouring and zendoodle yesterday in the Tawa Community Centre and lots of people came to chill and chat!!

FREE WORKOUT STARTS HERE:

If you want to start practicing mindfulness, so you feel better, are more relaxed and worry less, you have to make it easy for yourself. And the easiest way is to take an activity that you are doing already, and make that a mindfulness exercise. So doing what you are doing anyway, just now doing it mindfully.

This can be brushing your teeth, rinsing your shampoo, emptying the dishwasher, having your morning cuppa, walking home from the station, or hanging the laundry outside. The last one is my favorite!!

Make it mindful by bringing your full attention to your senses in the here and now. What can you see, feel, hear, touch, smell right here, right now while you are doing what you are doing. Doestn’t have to take more than a few minutes!!

You will notice you get easily distracted by anything that pops up in your mind, and that doesn’t matter at all. Actually, that is super normal to happen!

Just notice you get distracted, and kindly bring your attention back to the activity you were doing mindfully.

Tuesday is Creative Mindfulness, come if you can, learn mindfulness AND work on your creative projects. We have crocheters (of course), knitters, colourers etc.

Thursday we are making jingle balls for Little Sprouts, come if you can crochet and bring your hook and any materials you might have. I can send you a pattern if you like too!

Sunday we are colouring again at the Tawa community centre, 10-12!!

Wow Monday again! Are you here for the weekly workout? Let me know and hit the like button!

Learn to crochet is already in the last week, and I loved every lesson so much!! Lucky to be teaching this again in November!! Sign up at tawacomed website, it was fully booked very quickly last time.

Creative Mindfulness is Tuesday evening, all welcome to attend!

>>>>>>workout starts here<<<<<<

If you practice being mindful, you will also become more aware of what is going on in your mind. As your mind will distract you from being mindful all the time! (Which is totally normal!)

This week try to notice your thoughts and see if there are any negative thoughts. And here’s the workout: try to reframe them into a more positive thought. For example: I can never do this. You could change that into I cannot do it yet.

Good morning and welcome to another week, and another little mindfulness workout!

Tomorrow CREATIVE MINDFULNESS starts, 7.30-9pm in Tawa, let me know if you want to join to learn and practice mindfulness AND work on your creative projects in a friendly and down to earth class.

Crocheters, knitters, colourers etc all welcome!!

>>>workout starts here<<<

Mindfulness is training your attention to be in the here and now, with an open and curious attitude, non judging of what is here.

Often we get stressed, by situations, by ourselves, by others. Mindfulness will not make stress never happen again, but it can help in managing stress, by doing just that: notice you get stressed!!

We can rage for some time, before we even notice what is actually going on with us. So that first step is the most important: notice that you are stressing out, looking at yourself.

Than be mindful of where in your body you feel stress, and just observe that. I find you are all clever people and usually once you learn to recognise the moment you are stressing out, and bringing your attention to your body, your feelings and what is going on in your mind, will give you a lightbulb moment as to what is going to be your next step. You can do this!

So no running away from stress, not beating yourself up about being stressed, just becoming aware of it is the way to move onwards. By practicing this, you will notice when you are being stressed much sooner, or you might even notice you are about to get stressed, and that is just great!!

Try it for a week and let me know if this is helpful,

have a great week,

M

🌷Healthy Mind, Happy Heart

ps Crocheting for calmness is so succesful, we are already taking bookings for next term!!